NORTH : ANAHEIM : Adult Business Law Being Re-Examined

A proposed ordinance that would severely restrict areas in which adult businesses can be located is being re-examined because it may be too strict, which could cause a court to overturn it.

City Atty. Jack L. White postponed a scheduled presentation to the City Council on Tuesday, saying his staff needs two weeks to make sure there are places in the city where strip bars and other adult businesses can be located if the ordinance is adopted.

The proposed ordinance, which would replace one struck down twice in court in July as unconstitutionally vague, would require that an adult business be located only in a commercial or manufacturing zone, at least 750 feet from a residential zone and 1,000 feet from schools, parks, churches and other adult businesses. It would also require all dancers to wear G-strings and female dancers to also wear pasties.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that adult businesses are protected by the First Amendment, but White said courts have ruled cities can place reasonable restrictions on their operations.

He cited another city’s ordinance that was overturned because its restrictions left an airport runway and some wetlands as the only available locations for an adult business.

“If we adopt an ordinance that is on its face constitutional, but in its application unconstitutional, we’ll wind up on the losing side (in court) and the city will wind up having to pay for court costs and possibly damages,” White said.

Attorney Roger Diamond, who persuaded a judge to allow a strip club near Anaheim Stadium to open, said the city needs to make sure the ordinance is not too restrictive.

He said courts allow people to violate with impunity laws that clearly violate the First Amendment. So if it is obvious that Anaheim’s ordinance would be voided in court, there would be nothing to stop a strip club from opening anywhere in the city, even across the street from Disneyland, he said.

“Having an ordinance (that is unconstitutional) would be the same as having no ordinance at all,” Diamond said.

The city’s previous ordinance allowed the council to forbid the opening of an adult business if it would have “an adverse affect” on the neighborhood.

But a federal court judge said in July that the ordinance was too vague and ruled in favor of a couple who wanted to allow the dancers at their west side bar to go topless. Diamond used that ruling to win in state Superior Court later that week.